The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center fielded calls about more than 376,000 items that pets were exposed to in 2025, and its annual ranking of those exposures reads like a list of what arrives with holiday guests: purses and backpacks with medicine and supplements inside, trays of food, boxes of chocolate and flower arrangements. The ranking, published March 15, 2026, gives a household the categories to plan around before the house fills up between Thanksgiving and New Year's.

The 2025 ranking

Over-the-counter medications and supplements ranked first, at 16.9 percent of exposures, led by vitamins, dietary supplements and pain medicines. Food and drink was second at 16.4 percent. Human prescription medicines were third (the ASPCA did not publish a share), led by heart medicines, antidepressants and ADHD medicines. Chocolate was fourth at 13.6 percent, followed by veterinary products at 9.1 percent, plants and fungi at 7.5 percent, rodenticides at 6.5 percent, household products such as cleaners and paints at 6.4 percent, insecticides at 3.8 percent and recreational drugs at 1.9 percent. Veterinary products, mostly flavored chewables and soft chews such as calming and joint supplements, rose from 2024.

Guests' bags are the first route

The ASPCA notes that the medicines and supplements behind its top two categories often sit in backpacks and purses. It also tied part of the 2025 rise to new skin care products, such as masks and creams. A host can give coats and bags one closed room, or a high hook, rather than a chair or the floor where a dog can reach them. Guests staying overnight can be asked to keep pill organizers and toiletry bags zipped and off low surfaces.

Food on counters and in the trash

Within the food category, the ASPCA names grapes, raisins, gum sweetened with xylitol, onions and garlic as the largest share, and flags food in open garbage. Chocolate is a category of its own, and the ASPCA says dogs are the usual patients; a dog can eat an entire pan of brownies. Cats sample chocolate but rarely eat much.

Xylitol is the sweetener to read labels for. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it can trigger a strong insulin release in dogs, dropping blood sugar quickly; signs can appear within 10 to 60 minutes and other serious effects can take 12 to 24 hours to show. The agency lists sugar-free gum, breath mints, baked goods, cough syrup, chewable vitamins, mouthwash, toothpaste, some peanut and nut butters, over-the-counter medicines, supplements and sugar-free desserts among the products that may contain it, sometimes labeled as birch sugar or wood sugar. Signs start with vomiting and can progress to weakness, staggering, loss of coordination and seizures, with some dogs unable to stay on their feet. The FDA says cats appear less affected, while ferrets can react the way dogs do.

Flowers and plants

Plant exposures have been declining, the ASPCA says, but indoor and outdoor plants still account for 7.5 percent. Lilies are the cat hazard in holiday bouquets: the ASPCA lists the Asiatic lily as toxic to cats, with vomiting, loss of appetite, lethargy, kidney failure and death among the signs. The ASPCA keeps a searchable list of toxic and nontoxic plants by species, which is the place to check an arrangement or a gift plant before it comes inside.

Bait, cleaners and pest products

Rodenticides were 6.5 percent of 2025 exposures. The ASPCA's guidance is placement: bait goes where pets cannot reach it. For insecticides, following the label's dilution instructions and putting used bags away reduces exposures. Cleaners and paints, the core of the household products category, belong in closed cabinets during the pre-party cleanup as much as any other day.

If a pet eats something

The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center answers at (888) 426-4435, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. A one-time consultation fee may apply; the ASPCA does not post the amount. The ASPCA also says to contact a veterinarian if a pet may have swallowed something toxic. Because xylitol's effects can be delayed, the FDA says a dog that ate it may need monitoring at a veterinary hospital even if it looks fine at first. Writing the hotline number and the nearest emergency veterinary clinic's number on the refrigerator before guests arrive means nobody has to search for them in the moment.

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